Conventional solid tyre on the market today generally is used at industrial area that require the solid tyre to have puncture resistance, able to undertake relatively high loads, and having good abrasion and cut resistance properties. These solid tyres are generally manufactured using synthetic rubber where the source of materials is depleting or partially blended with natural rubber to achieve the require properties.
The tyre provides satisfactory performance when the tyre is operated on even surfaces such as concrete ground in a well maintained factory. However, the tyre might not perform effectively when it is used on deteriorated, uneven road or wet surface such as quarries, mines and mills. If the tyre handling is not performing effectively, it may cause injury to vehicle occupant or people around the vehicle. The foregoing describes the prior known limitations encountered by conventional solid tyres and their users.
A co-pending Malaysian Patent Application No. PI 2011004684 describes a method for preparing silica-filled epoxide natural rubber (ENR) masterbatch in latex comprising (i) 100 parts by weight of elastomer containing ENR 25 latex with 25% mole of epoxidation; with (ii) oil emulsion either aromatic or paraffinic or naphthenic oil in the form of 50% with 2 to 3 parts to the latex; with (iii) antioxidant in the form of a 30% dispersion with 2 to 3 parts to the latex; with (iv) silica in the form of a 10% to 50% dispersion with 10 to 70 parts to the latex; and (v) methods of coagulating silica-ENR mixtures either via (a) stirring only, (b) stirring with heat, or (c) stirring with acid to produce ready compounded silica-filled ENR masterbatch that is mainly directed to alleviate the problem of agglomeration of silica formed in rubber from prior known dry rubber processing methods.
However, there still exists a major hurdle in the existing and known rubber masterbatches whereby it is very difficult to attain both good traction/wet grip properties and low rolling resistance at the same time in a tyre tread composition.
Hence as apparent from the above said, it is imperative to provide for suitable rubber masterbatch preparations and the crosslinkable elastomeric compositions comprising the same, capable of being used in the production of crosslinked rubber products suitable for industrial applications, particularly in the production of solid tyres and specifically for solid tyre outer layers that would overcome the existing prior art problem of attaining both good traction/wet grip properties and low rolling resistance in the same tyre tread composition.
Moreover, there is a strong need in the art to provide for such suitable rubber masterbatch preparations and crosslinkable elastomeric compositions comprising the same as tyre tread compositions which provides both good wet traction and low rolling resistance performance of crosslinked rubber products especially solid tyres, specifically solid tyre outer layers, and also favour improved performance in terms of both better tyre handling and less fuel consumption of the automobiles using such tyres additionally imparting the desired comfort index to the vehicle occupants.